GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Damaged apple buds are a threat that the farming industry faces due to our evolving climate. Springtime is critical for growers as prolonged periods of above-average temperatures can trick apples into thinking it is time to bloom too early, which increases their threat to be damaged by frost when the cold inevitably returns overnight. This is something that is becoming more common with our warming atmosphere.
We spoke with an MSU extension horticulture expert, Amy Irish-Brown, about where we stand right now.
"The growers are a little nervous when it gets too warm too fast, but I think Mother Nature likes to give us lots of ups and downs. Nothing that we haven't seen before. Right now we still have a full potential crop ahead of us, I'm not worried at this point," explained Irish-Brown.
While it's too early to raise cause for concern, she did go on to say that she'll remains cautiously optimistic. The optimism comes from the fact that the apple buds are still somewhat used to the cold temperatures since we just broke out of winter.
The caution comes from the fact that she has seen some greening on her Macintosh Apples already. This happened approximately 16 days earlier than they typically should. Now with temperatures in the 60s for the second half of the 10-day forecast, more apples should be expected to bloom in the coming days.
Irish-Brown went on to say, "If it gets warm and stays warm then we will have no problems. But that rarely happens in Michigan. It gets warm, it gets cold. This is why apple growers want stay dormant or mostly dormant as long as we can. To get us past that risk of frost that inherently comes with growing fruit in Michigan."
So, the key is when that final freeze date will come, which statistically arrives around May 10. This is because if we get too many warm days, the apple buds will lose that innate resistance to the cold. They are subject to damage if a frost event were to occur, so with the likelihood of these apples blooming upon us, we just hope for an earlier end to the frost date to help prevent damage.
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